UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I'm a relative newbie and apologize if this is silly... Suppose I have a file with English words and their Spanish translations. I read them in like this:

Code:

while(getline < myfile > 0) {
     eng = $1
     SPAN[eng] = $2
}

Now, for every eng in SPAN, I want to scan through SPAN[eng] and search for a particular character, but it matters to me *where* in the spanish my character occurs.

Is there an easy way to track and check this?

Thanks for any pointers.

--Lee

Assuming you mean awk code

Code:

myletter="c"
myposition=3
awk -v myletter=$myletter -v mypos=myposition ' {
     SPAN[$1]=$2
     if mypos == index(SPAN[$1], myletter) )
             {print $1, SPAN[$1], "has ", myletter, "at position", myposition}
     } ' inputfilename

Thanks Jim. That does the trick.